Special Operations Unit (Serbia)

Unit for Special Operations (Serbian: Јединица за специјалне операције, romanized: Jedinica za specijalne operacije; abbr. ЈСО or JSO) or Special Operations Unit, also known as Red Berets (by berets; Serbian: Црвене беретке, romanized: Crvene beretke) or Frankies (by Franko Simatović; Serbian: Френкијевци, romanized: Frenkijevci), was an elite special forces police unit of Serbian State Security Directorate (RDB). The JSO was created in 1996 by merging paramilitary units under the command of Željko Ražnatović "Arkan" and Franko Simatović and incorporating them into the security system of the Serbia under the auspice of Jovica Stanišić, head of the State Security Directorate. From 1996 to November 2001, it was formally under the competence of the RDB. The unit was finally disbanded in March 2003, after the Prime Minister of Serbia Zoran Đinđić was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy in which some members of the unit were involved. Patrons and numerous members of the unit and its predecessors have been implicated and some sentenced, for war crimes during the Yugoslav Wars, as well as criminal activity. The unit's official commander Franko Simatović and its gray eminence Jovica Stanišić (head of RDB during the first half of Slobodan Milošević's rule) were acquitted at International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for various war crimes. Various other members are convicted or being tried for the Ibar Highway assassination attempt and for the murders of Ivan Stambolić and Slavko Ćuruvija. The JSO was also reportedly involved in instances of war crimes in the Kosovo War.